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I just discovered that this movie What Would Jesus Buy is opening today in the Bay Area. I really want to see it but I hate to deal with mall traffic on the road. Unfortunately that means the next 30 plus days are going to be full of people either giving gifts out of obligation or trying to find that perfect gift for the person that has everything.

As I sit here in Starbucks on Black Friday I’ve already noticed 2-3 times the normal amount of foot traffic in the store. I suppose the only way that you can get prepared to go into the red on your credit card is to buy an overpriced coffee. I know, hypocritical, since I am in Starbucks drinking right how. My only claim to immunity is that I will only pay for a house coffee and a fifty cent refill over about 4-5 hours. So in a way I feel that I am getting a deal.

I heard an estimate that today approximately 9.5 billion dollars will be spent. 6 Billion dollars could provide proper sanitation and clean drinking water for everyone in the world and in one day in American we have the capacity to spend 150% of that on ourselves. I suppose that talking about this can sound highly pessimistic and bitter but I would like to think that these thoughts originate from a different place within me. For me it is rooted in the fact that we live in a world that is very connected. At one time in the world there were people who were suffering all the way across the world and we could not see, hear or visit them But the world is different now.

It is flat.

We can do something.

It is in this flat world that I think the church has the ability to regain their integrity. It is in this flat world that it has an ability to regain its sense of mission. Imagine how odd it would be to the world if there was a certain people who in light of the circumstances of the world around them chose to do something with what they had been given? What if they decided not to consume what they had been given or give a third coat to a person that already had two but gave their coat to someone who had none? What if they were satisfied with a car that has a heater and a/c for fifteen to twenty thousand rather than going into debt over getting a car with all the fixings? What if their houses were smaller but as a result money was freed up so they were able to fund emerging businesses oversea so that they could have roofs over their head?

I think it would raise some eyebrows. Instead of politicians, trying to win the religious vote, using certain key words to appear faith friendly they might discuss how they can enable these people to continue to demonstrate this “good news” way of living to those around them.

Maybe cars wouldn’t have bumper stickers that say, “If money is the root of all evil (even though this is a misquote), why are church’s always asking for it.”

Perhaps when those who are voicepieces for the church spoke, people would listen. Maybe it would seem easier to submit to a God of love when they see His representatives practically demonstrate what love looks like.